In May 1987 , Ken Parks was watchingSaturday Night Livewith trouble on his mind . In the break of the day , he and his wife would go to his in - laws ' home to concede that he had a gambling trouble . That he had bust the family savings to address his debts . That he had embezzled from the electronics ship’s company he worked for when he needed even more money . That he had been send away and charged with thievery . That he and his wife had to deal the family .
He strike deceased on the couch around 1:30 a.m. and the next thing he exact to be able to remember was looking down at his mother - in - law ’s face , her middle and mouth frozen wide open . He remembered pop off downstairs , starting his car and realizing that he had a tongue in his manpower . He recall throw the tongue onto the floor , going to the police station for service and , upon questioning , enunciate , “ I call up I have kill some people . . . my hands , ” only then feel the pain of several severed ? exor tendons .
What Ken Parks aver he did not remember was have off the couch and getting spruced up . He did not commend driving to his in - Pentateuch ’ mansion and strangle his father - in - law when he perplex there . He did not remember choke up the stairs , stab his mother - in - jurisprudence five times in the chest of drawers and beating her and fracture her skull .
He did not remember killing her .
- The police took Parks to the Sunnybrook Medical Centre for intervention of his hands . To find Parks ’ power to give consent for surgery , a psychiatrical appraisal was acquit and the examine psychiatric resident tentatively diagnosed Parks psychogenic blackout and depression without psychotic feature film . After surgery , Parks was interview by police and charged with ? rst - degree murder .
He was later take to Toronto East Detention Centre , where he undergo medical and psychiatric appraisal at the asking of his attorney . The doctor moot acute psychotic installment under extreme focus , aggression during an amnesiac drug - related state , volitional ( deliberate ) homicide with stress - make blackout and complex partial epileptic seizures with automatic behavior as potential diagnoses . All the doctors who analyze Parks found grounds of depression and anxiety , but none said he testify planetary house of any delusions , hallucinations , paranoia or other grounds of psychosis . He had no history of psychosis or amnesic installment , but was an periodic sleepwalker . During seven dissimilar interviews with various doctors , lawyers and the constabulary , Parks ’ explanation of what he did and did not think that Nox persist consistent , down to specific details .
With no evidence of mental illness , the police cerebrate Parks a likely culprit , specially given his recent story . At the geezerhood of 23 , he had a wife , a 5 - month - old girl , a gaming trouble and an always - increase amount of debt . Hiding his problem and his actions from his married woman and his Centennial State - workers caused him grave focus until March 1987 , when the misappropriation was name and he was ? red and charge with theft .
Running out of selection and with his closed book now out at menage , Parks and his married woman put their house up for sale to spread over at least some of the stay debt . On May 20 , Parks went to his ? rst Gamblers Anonymous meeting , where he was further to discuss his problems with both his family and his in - laws . He made plans visit his nanna the follow Saturday ( May 23 ) and his in - laws on Sunday ( May 24 ) to come clean . Police figured that Parks might have changed his creative thinker that weekend , or set the whole thing up as a cover , and attempt to murder his in - law either to get to their money or keep them from finding out about his problems .
There were several work stoppage against this hypothesis , though . For one , Parks was in particular snug with his married woman ’s parent and they seemed an unlikely alternative of victim . Additionally , in almost every conversation he had with police , prison house and aesculapian force – beginning when he show up in a confused state at the police station – Parks both denied any spirit to obliterate his in - laws and expressed horror , remorse and large mix-up about what had happened at their theatre .
One of the first documented sheath of sleep - pertain violence , or “ nocturnal aggression , ” is that of Bernard Schedmaizig , a woodcutter live in mediaeval Silesia ( a diachronic region of Central Europe place mostly in Poland ) . One night , after Schedmaizig had been asleep for only a few time of day , he woke up abruptly . He opine he saw an intruder at the pes of his bed , so he grabbed his axe and started swinging , killing his wife who slept beside him .
Other cases of homicidal somnambulism ( homicidal violence link up with noctambulation ) through the years include the military officer who shot another solider and his own sawbuck , the servant who stabbed her lord ’s minor , the housewife who threw her infant out a window , and the ? reman who waken up to find he had beaten his married woman to death with a shovel .
To this day , sleepwalking is n’t altogether see . aesculapian field have suggested various causes , such as postponement in the maturation of the fundamental nervous system or physiological trigger that cause the learning ability to pass away slow undulation sleep straight to wakefulness ( rather transitioning from REM or NREM ) . Since sleepwalking is clustered in families and a tike ’s likelihood of sleepwalk increment if one or both parent are noctambulist , some heritable divisor might predispose someone to the behavior . factor such as eternal rest privation , excessive weariness and use of alcoholic beverage , neuroleptic agent and hypnotics all seem to influence the natural event of sleepwalking in those predisposed to it . * * * Sleepwalking is more often than not accepted in the aesculapian community as a country of automatism , or reflex behavior , where a person has neither awareness nor control of their conduct . Legally speaking , slaying postulate spirit , so the issues of awareness and control were of swell interest group to Parks ’ defence counsel . A sopor disorder specialist was bring in to see if noctambulation or another sleep disorderliness play any part in Parks ’ crimes .
The specializer ’s probe uncover that Parks had been a grievous bed wetter for a turn of age , a inveterate nap verbalizer , an occasional sleepwalker and a inscrutable sleeper goby who was very hard to awaken . During two overnight sleep studies , Parks had frequent shifts to light nap or wakefulness . noctambulation , rest talking , bedwetting , deep sleeping and night terrors were also find oneself to be fairly vernacular among members of Parks ’ family .
Parks had the predisposing factors ( stiff kinfolk and personal chronicle of sleepwalking ) that would normally lead to a diagnosing of somnambulism , and the coupling of tiredness and need for deep sleep with the stress of his plans for the weekend were considered possible triggering factors for an episode of sleepwalking . Parks ’ attorney decided to argue his effectual defense as “ homicide during noninsane automatism as part of a presumed sequence of noctambulation . ” They argued that Parks did not have any preexisting “ disease of the mind , ” there was no grounds for psychosis or other mental illness and that the clump of factors that triggered the assault and murder was rarefied , so the recurrence of red noctambulism with aggression was unlikely . Mungo Park should be acquitted , his lawyer argue , and not be subject to mandatory hospitalization in a psychiatric institution ( as he would were his behavior the resolution of an insane automatism or if he posed a continuing danger to others ) . * * * " somnambulate defense ” have had a miscellaneous track record book in the Margaret Court of various state . There was a gentleman’s gentleman in Wales who dream intruders had broken into his motor home one night while he and his wife were on vacation and inflame up the next morning to incur he had strangled his married woman to death . He had suffered from rest disorders for 50 eld , but had gone off his medication so it would n’t interfere with the intimate 40th wedding day of remembrance he and his wife had project . The man was discharge , with the judge distinguish him , “ You are a decent humans and a devoted husband . In the centre of the law , you bear no responsibility . ” In 2003 , an Englishman who beat his sire to death claimed that he had been sleeping at the time and was committed to a mental institution . In 1981 a gentleman in Arizona stab his married woman 26 times while sleepwalking and was line up temporarily insane by a panel , who acquitted him . In 1997 , another Arizona resident stabbed his wife 44 times and drown her in their pool . He claim to remember nothing about the incident and that he was asleep at the clock time . At trial , a criminal prosecution expert evidence that the world ’ actions after the murder – changing his clothes and placing his bloody clothing and the murder arm in a refuse suitcase in the bare tyre well in the automobile trunk of his car – were too complex to have been carry out during sleepwalk . The piece was establish shamefaced of first - degree murder and sentenced to life without parole . * * * On May 25 , 1988 , the panel in Ken Parks ’ execution trial rendered a finding of fact of not guilty . Parks was also bear of the undertake murder of his father - in - law shortly after . After his sacking from custody , Parks began receiving psychotherapy taking anti - anxiety meds before bed . After the acquittal , the test jurist ’s determination that somnambulism was a form of noninsane automatism was appeal to the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court of Canada . Both appellate Margaret Court upheld the original decision . Ken Parks has not account any further episodes of somnambulation or nighttime wildness — only a few illustration of sitting up in his sleep .
[ Image credit : Toronto Star , iStockPhoto ]
